https://www.coinspeaker.com/coinbase-q4-2022-revenue/

Coinspeaker
Coinbase Records Increase in Q4 2022 Revenue but There’s Catch

Despite recording a 5% increase in its Q3 earning, crypto exchange Coinbase Global Inc (NASDAQ: COIN) still has some negative reports to take away from its Q4 revenue. According to its earnings report, Coinbase made $605 million in revenue in the third quarter of 2022. While that is ahead of the $588 million that analysts projected, it also signals that the exchange did better than it did in the third quarter when it made $590 million in net revenue, says FactSet.

But even after beating expectations, the Q4 earnings report also shows Coinbase being lackluster in some other areas.

Coinbase Transaction Volume Drops in Q4 as User Base Continues Shrinking

According to the report, the exchange saw its transaction volume fall by over 12% to hit $322 million. And there’s more.

Coinbase’s user base has also continued to decrease in recent times. Going by the report, Coinbase claims that there were 8.3 million monthly transacting users (MTUs) on its platform during the fourth quarter. That is a massive drop from the 8.5 million MTUs it saw in the previous quarter.

Overall, revenue is down nearly 75% from what it was a year ago even as the so-called crypto winter continues to snuff the life out of crypto prices. Also, it might be surprising to know how far Coinbase has come in just a year. That is, from recording a net income of $840 million at the height of crypto adoption last year, to a net loss of $557 million.

Hope on the Horizon?

Meanwhile, it appears that Coinbase may now have something to cheer about and look forward to in the new year. Just like Bitcoin (BTC) prices, Coinbase shares have surged by significant amounts in 2023 so far. As of publication, they are up 78% in the year running already.

Sharing its anxiety, Coinbase disclosed in its shareholder letter that crypto markets are picking up. The firm also claims that Q1 is already showing improvements over Q4 as the company has been able to make $120 million in transaction revenue. That is for January alone.

Nonetheless, the firm warned investors to not be too drawn by these results. The exchange reminded investors how last year taught everyone that markets can change at any time.

Coinbase Records Increase in Q4 2022 Revenue but There’s Catch

https://www.coinspeaker.com/ant-group-partnership-nba-china/

Coinspeaker
Ant Group Enters Strategic Partnership with NBA in China

Chinese fintech giant Ant Group has announced a new partnership with the prestigious basketball league NBA. According to the Tuesday announcement, the strategic partnership will see the two parties pull their resources together, in areas such as video content, membership, as well as program broadcasting.

Ant Group Reveals the Aims of the Partnership with NBA

Per a statement, video content will now be accessible to NBA fans in China via Alipay – an Ant Group-owned platform. Furthermore,  it is expected that both Ant Group and the NBA will later carry out joint marketing campaigns to launch digital collectibles among other projects. And lastly, the partnership also seeks to create social responsibility initiatives. This will help to bring more engagement and inclusiveness to its growing fans and communities.

Speaking about the new partnership, Ant Group Chief Technology Officer, Ni Xingjun says there is no better time for the move than now. He wrote in part:

“Bringing NBA’s high-quality content and content creators into our platform is an important step for Alipay to embrace the content ecosystem as an open platform.”

An NBA Fans Delight

For what it’s worth, the NBA remains one of America’s biggest exports to China. That is because the professional basketball league rakes in hundreds of millions of dollars annually from the Chinese market. At least, up until October 2019 when the long years of partnership with national broadcaster CCTV became severed.

The decision to stop showing NBA games altogether resulted from a Daryl Morey tweet and the resulting backlash. Morey, who was then, the general manager of the basketball club Houston Rockets had tweeted in support of Hong Kong anti-government protests at the time. Though the post was later taken down, it didn’t sit well with the government, thus resulting in the decision that led to the 18-month blackout.

Now, however, normalcy appears to be gradually returning to NBA broadcasts in China. As reported by Reuters in December,  the league’s viewership data suggests that China-based fans are back watching NBA games. And they are not just doing so, but at levels close to where they were before the 2019 incident.

Ant Group Enters Strategic Partnership with NBA in China

https://www.coinspeaker.com/saudi-aramco-mou-droppgroup-web3-0/

Coinspeaker
Saudi Aramco Signs MoU with droppGroup in Web 3.0 Move

Saudi Arabian-based energy giant Saudi Aramco has partnered with droppGroup as it looks to explore the endless possibilities of Web 3.0 technology.  According to a press release made available to CoinDesk, the oil group – worth nearly $2 trillion, has now signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Web 3.0 technology provider droppGroup.

Saudi Aramco Forays Deeper into Blockchain Technology

Per the release, Saudi Aramco will look to leverage the new partnership to develop Web3-based applications. The applications will be aimed at helping its employees in areas including onboarding, rewards, tokenized network, and even training ecosystems.

Meanwhile, it might be worth noting that Web 3.0, which is the new generation of the internet, is driven by blockchain technology. So, it appears that Saudi Aramco has a growing interest in technology. Recall that Coinspeaker earlier reported that it invested a whopping sum of $5 million into the blockchain-based trading platform, VAKT. That was in January 2020.

Pioneering Web 3.0 Adoption

On a broader note, Aramco’s new deal with droppGroup is further proof that Saudi Arabia is one of the leading early adopters of Web 3.0 technology.  The Middle Eastern country has launched several projects in line with its Web 3.0 ambition. One such is Neom’s cognitive metaverse project XVRS, which is based on the country’s virtual city.

Furthermore, Saudi’s apex bank recruited a former Accenture managing director Mohsen AlZahrani back in September.  The move was, primarily, to see AlZahrani use his expertise to steer the country’s Web 3.0 course. Since then, Saudi Arabia has launched a virtual assets unit whose objective is to develop a digital currency (CBDC).

In the same month, the country made another metaverse move by partnering with King Abdulaziz Foundation for Research and Archives. The collaboration will help bring National Day to the metaverse.

For what it’s worth, Aramco’s foray into Web 3.0 is a strategy to help it diversify into global markets. However, it will also help Saudi Arabia to realize its plans of reducing its reliance on oil and gas products.

Saudi Aramco Signs MoU with droppGroup in Web 3.0 Move

https://www.coinspeaker.com/gbbc-digital-finance-securities-member/

Coinspeaker
GBBC Digital Finance Joins International Securities Regulatory Body IOSCO as Affiliate Member

GBBC Digital Finance is now an affiliate member of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO). The body which focuses on ensuring an accelerated adoption of digital finance shared the announcement via a February 16 press release.

According to the release, GBBC now joins about 35 national securities regulators and more than 200 member organizations that make up the international association.

Meanwhile, GBBC’s addition to IOSCO may already be off to a good start. This follows after it immediately joined the Consultative Committee of IOSCO as the 70th member. By doing this, GBBC is now well-positioned to actively partake in the policy-making decisions of IOSCO. Even more, committee members like GBBC could also form groups to hold annual training on issues linked with securities.

GBBC Digital Finance to Collaborate with IOSCO on Its Crypto Roadmap

The IOSCO group has been keen on regulating securities by all means necessary. As a fact, it put out a “Crypto-Asset Roadmap” in July, setting out its regulatory agenda for the crypto sector for the next 12 to 24 months. In the same month, the IOSCO also partnered with the Bank for International Settlements to issue guidance on stablecoins. That’s not to mention that it had earlier released a paper on DeFi in March. This was when it warned of the varying degrees of risks that come with the technology.

In turn, GBBC Digital Finance chair Lawrence Wintermeyer has now pledged that the body will help IOSCO achieve its aim. He said in a statement:

“We will work with IOSCO to best engage our members in 2023 in providing any assistance we can to the two IOSCO Crypto-Asset Roadmap working groups, Crypto and Digital Assets (CDA) and Decentralised Finance (DeFi).”

In a similar statement, GBBC Digital Finance CEO Emma Joyce also said:

“Our priority at GDF in 2023 is engagement with regulators and policymakers and jointly examining how we might construct a DeFI education and engagement platform.”

Other crypto news can be found here.

GBBC Digital Finance Joins International Securities Regulatory Body IOSCO as Affiliate Member